The series win for the Blues drew 2.701 million viewers — just a tad shy of game one’s numbers.
The second Origin was a win for Nine, naturally, and New South Wales, and a series win for NSW as the next big lockdown starts. The game averaged 2.701 million — very close to game one’s 2.708 million. Metro viewers totalled 1.86 million, down from 1.9 million for game one. Regional audiences rose: 840,000 against 797,000.
Nine’s audience share fell to 34.5% for the main channels from 37.2% for game one. Overall, Nine’s total people share was 40.9% — down from 43.3%. Both are still very solid, but it is clear Origin is no longer the super-strong rater it was three years ago.
The viewing figures were better than last year’s game two though. It had 2.43 million nationally, 1.65 million in the metros and 780,000 in the regions. But they again fell short of the 3.2 million for game one of 2019 which remains the most recent high for the series.
